| |
|
|
Book Review: Start Your Own Business
by Adam McFarland
Published on this site: April 20th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
If you want to start a business, but don't know where to start,
then the place to start is with "Start Your Own Business:
The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need" by Rieva Lesonsky.
The book is put out by Entrepreneur Press and is essentially
a compilation of Entrepreneur Magazine's large knowledge database regarding starting a business.
The book literally takes you through the entire business process
- from determining if you really have what it takes to run
a business to how to deal with failure if your business doesn't
work out, and everything in between. The best part about the book is that it covers nearly everything in some
capacity. If you need more information, it does a great job
of suggesting further reading and pertinent web sites.
The book is broken down into seven sections, each with several
chapters. The first section, 'You Gotta Start Somewhere' covers
determining if you can be an entrepreneur, how to come up
with an idea for your business, and whether you should launch
your business part time or full time. Most people who buy
the book will already have answers to these questions, but going through
the exercises in the book can still be helpful.
The second section of the book is entitled 'Building Blocks'.
It covers how to name your business, choosing a business structure,
creating a business plan, and how to hire a lawyer and accountant.
I think that this is the most valuable section of the book.
These are the things that most entrepreneurs either struggle
with or ignore. The "Naming Your Business" chapter
in particular helped me a great deal. Naming your business
is not nearly as easy as you think - you need to consider
all registered trademark names, registered domain names, and
names that are being used but not trademarked. One of the
worst things that you can do is to pick a name that is already
being used by someone and face a legal battle down the road.
The third section covers financing including where and how
to get money to run your business. The fourth section, 'Setting
the Stage' is absolutely massive and covers numerous important
things such as choosing a location for your business, creating
a professional image, offering customers credit, hiring your
first employee, and business insurance. Needless to say, all
of these things are extremely important to every business
owner.
The fifth section covers buying company computers, cell phones,
and cars. These things probably won't be very difficult for
most business owners. The sixth section, however, covers one
of the hardest thing every business owner faces - marketing.
The section is nearly 100 pages about advertising, marketing,
and public relations. It also briefly touches on web-marketing
but those looking to seriously profit online will need to
look elsewhere because the book is a little thin when it comes
to e-commerce.
The final section, entitled 'By the Books' goes over every
entrepreneurs favorite things - accounting and taxes. It gives
solid advice regarding basic bookkeeping, financial statements,
budgeting, and taxes. For most business owners this section
and the web resources listed should be more than enough to
get them started on keeping their business legal.
I can't overemphasize how important I think it is for every
business owner to have this book. It is a mini-encyclopedia
(ok, so 800 pages isn't that mini) for everything business
related. Having this book on your shelf will save you countless
hours. I read it from cover to cover when I got it and I constantly
refer back to it. I have recommended it to every person I
know that has talked with me about starting a business. Each
and every one of them bought it, and each and every one of them came back to me raving about it.
For the amount of depth that is covered in the book, Start
Your Own Business: The Only Start-Up Book You'll Ever Need
by Rieva Lesonsky is an amazingly easy read. Anyone over the
age of 16 will be able to comprehend the simple nature of
the book. Reading this book won't guarantee your success as
an entrepreneur, but it will help reduce the risk of starting
a business by providing you with a sound foundation to build
upon.
Adam McFarland owns the http://SportsLizard.com
Network - collectibles, movies, books, video games, and more.
You can read Adam's blog about being a young internet entrepreneur by going to http://www.sportslizard.com/blog/
http://SportsLizard.com
was recently awarded honorable mention in the Microsoft Start
Something Amazing Awards
|
| |
|
|
